Britney or Christina? That was the biggest pop rivalry of the ‘90s, at least as far as the headlines went. Christina Aguilera got her chance to put the question to rest once and for all on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The funnyman put her up to singing Britney’s iconic hit “Oops!… I Did It Again” with the lyrics of “This Little Piggy.” Christina also sang in Cher and Shakira’s styles, but unsurprisingly, the Britney section was by far the most replayed section by fans in the 94 million view viral clip.
There’s only one Britney, but hearing Christina sing in her style reminded us all of why Xtina was arguably the greatest voice in pop of that era. And can we just say in addition to those vocal stylings, Christina’s impressions were absolutely side-splitting. The Music May readers may note that you could feel some tension in the air when Jimmy asked Christina to sing Britney, but when she dropped that iconic vocal, nailing Britney’s style, she absolutely brought the house down!
When The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon uploaded Christina’s wheel of musical impressions segment to YouTube, it became one of the most popular clips in the history of the show. Fans were stoked on the crossover and added comments such as “She does Britney better than Britney does herself” and “Christina NAILED every song! I cracked up, but her singing is on another level. Christina singing Britney is something that we all need to see before we die.”
Wheel of Musical Impressions clips produced some of the greatest moments from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The second-most popular clip in the history of the show came when Ariana Grande tried her hand at the challenge. Funnily enough, the most-viewed part of this challenge was Ariana’s impression of Christina Aguilera, but set to the lyrics of “The Wheels on the Bus.” It’s wild to see how much soul and power Ariana put into the performance, despite the silly lyrics. Jimmy was all shook up!
Britney and Christina’s careers had many parallels. The Music Man readers may recall that they both got their big break as child stars on The Mickey Mouse Club. They then both became the biggest breakout teen pop stars on the planet within a few months of each other. Britney broke the scene first by dropping “…Baby One More Time” on September 29, 1998. Christina then scored her first smash hit with her release of “Genie in a Bottle” on May 11, 1999. While the two stars didn’t have any personal beef with each other, the media worked itself into a frenzy at the time, writing pieces about the alleged rivalry and comparing their vocal and commercial performances. Likewise, every ‘90s kid was either a Britney or Christina fan.